Have you noticed how some people always seem happy and grateful, even when they are facing difficulties in their lives? They display a level of contentment that many of us do not understand. One of the secrets of thriving even in challenging times is mastering the art of enjoying the simple things in life. I would go as far as to say that there is more happiness to be found in enjoying the little things in life than great wealth or material things can bring us.
What are the simple things in life that we should be looking for?
Everyone is different and you get to decide what simple things in life will enhance your happiness. For example, you may love living close to the hustle and bustle of a city and really enjoy a regular early morning gym session on your way to the office or stopping in at your favourite coffee shop. Or you may live in a quiet suburb and love drinking your first cup of coffee on your patio before working from home. It is up to you to identify what it is that makes certain “simple” things special to you and allow yourself to consciously experience the happiness that they bring.
Here is a framework for exploring and experiencing your world so that you can identify the simple things that make you happy:
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1. Get to know yourself better through connecting mindfully with your senses
In our busy lives, we do not simply slow down often enough and use our senses deliberately, just for the sheer joy of the experience. This is made worse by spending the bulk of our working day – and personal time – being cut off from other people and our surroundings as we receive information through our screens. Spending time intentionally exploring our five senses can be a great source of personal discovery. The easiest way to increase your focus on your senses is to simply direct all your available attention to one physical sense at a time.
Here are five ideas for getting in touch with each of your senses.
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Sight. To dive into the experience of seeing fully and completely, take regular time out to pause and take in what is around you. Choose a favourite spot and, as often as you can, take time out to observe everything you can see in detail. Notice the colours, the textures, the light or shade visible in your immediate environment.
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Sound. Following on from focusing on sight, once you are visually in touch with your surroundings you can turn your attention to what you can hear. Focus on listening to whatever sounds surround you to the exclusion of all else. Another way to connect with our sense of hearing is to listen to music. Music stimulates our auditory senses and can stir up memories and trigger a range of emotional responses – from joy and exhilaration to serenity and peace.
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Touch. Human touch – when it is nurturing and acceptable to the recipient – is of vital importance for well-being. It helps reduce stress and anxiety, improves mood, and increases feelings of social connection and bonding. To practice fully experiencing your sense of touch, first focus on what is touching you – your clothes or glasses, the chair or surface on which you are sitting, the wind in your face or ambient temperature in a room. Then reach out to actively experience your surroundings through touch.
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Smell. Ever heard the saying, “Take the time to stop and smell the roses?” It is pleasurable to be able to pay attention to delicious scents and aromas. Different smells can trigger a range of powerful emotional responses. Standing in a bakery can take you back to the smell of bread baking in your mother’s kitchen, evoking memories of family, comfort, and happiness. The smell of coffee brewing can be connected to feelings of calm and reduced stress. Practice tuning in to your sense of smell by taking a “smell tour” of ingredients in your kitchen.
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Taste. Tasting and eating are personal as well as social experiences. We conjure happy memories when we eat our favourite things and can create great memories when we share meals with people whose company we enjoy. What is more, the taste of sweet, savoury, and salty foods can trigger a rush of brain activity that positively influences our emotions and moods. Start practicing really experiencing your sense of taste by savouring each bite of a meal rather than wolfing it down.
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2. Learn to laugh more
There are so many benefits to enjoy when smiling and laughing. Smiling can help reduce your body’s stress-response, even if you do not feel happy at the time. Laughing releases dopamine, increases blood flow, and strengthens the heart. Plus having a well-developed sense of humor leads to increased optimism, which can boost our resilience and empower us to thrive even when we are faced with difficulties. Just like any soft skill, a sense of humour can be developed. According to Psychology Today, “cultivating a humorous mindset helps you see yourself and any situation with a more supple mind so that you are not locked into a negative view.”
Here are 5 ways to reframe your view and cultivate a sense of humour in routine day-to-day living:
- Start with a smile. Even a fake smile can increase happiness by triggering the release of feel-good endorphins.
- Take a step back. Take time out to step back from a difficult situation and look at it with fresh eyes. Finding the funny side will help you shift your perspective and find the absurdity in the situation.
- Value the humour found in a sense of the ridiculous. If your situation is over-the-top frustrating, recognise the potential humour in just how ridiculously annoying it is.
- Recruit friends with a sense of humour. Find trustworthy friends with whom you can share your frustrations and difficulties and see the lighter side of the experience.
- Learn from funny entertainment. Humorous TV shows and online videos tend to push the boundaries of universally frustrating situations to show the funny side. Look for content that skillfully shows the humour in annoying, upsetting, or tricky situations. Being open to this view of life can help you develop a lighthearted attitude to less than ideal situations.
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3. Practice being grateful
Gratitude helps people focus on what they have instead of what they lack. Being grateful for what you have can help you feel happier, reduce stress, and improve your outlook on life. According to Harvard Health, “Gratitude is strongly and consistently associated with greater happiness. Gratitude helps people feel more positive emotions, relish good experiences, improve their health, deal with adversity, and build strong relationships.” Like humour, an attitude of gratitude can be cultivated.
Here are five ways of cultivating gratitude:
- Regularly write thank you notes
- Think about people for whom you are grateful
- Keep a gratitude journal – write down 3 things each day for which you are grateful
- Consciously count your blessings
- Pray or meditate from a place in your heart of gratefulness
In summary, taking the time to slow down amid the hurly-burly, to deeply experience different situations in the moment – as well as practicing being grateful for what we have and learning to reframe our thinking by cultivating a sense of humour – all help to pave the way for us to find happiness in the little things in life. The outcome is being more in tune with ourselves and what makes us happy. In turn, this has a knock-on effect of making us more mindful about how we spend our time and how we react to the situations and people in our lives. So, take time out to smell the roses, because it is worth it.
Over to you for sharing your comments and experiences.
About the Author: Kerstin Jatho
Kerstin is the senior transformational coach and team development facilitator for 4Seeds Consulting. She is also the author of Growing Butterfly Wings, a book on applying positive psychology principles during a lengthy recovery. Her passion is to develop people-centred organisations where people thrive and achieve their potential in the workplace. You can find Kerstin on LinkedIn, Soundcloud, YouTube and Facebook.
